You Could Have Googled Me
by MorganAW
Summary: In Dr. Gardiner's Seminar-Bonus 2, Lizzy suggested that Darcy could have googled her and found out about her videos earlier. This what-if explores what could have happened if a lonely William Darcy had googled Lizzy Bennet shortly after he returned to LA. (Lizzie Bennet Diaries)
1. Chapter 1

My husband was out of town for a conference and I may have binge watched all of LBD. This little distraction from the longer story I'm working on is the result.

Licensing Note: Based on Characters and story lines from _Lizzie Bennet Diaries,_ written and produced by Bernie Sue and based off of _Pride and Prejudice_ by Jane Austen. All original content and plot for _You Could Have Googled Me_ is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license by Morgan A. Wyndham. Cross published on Archive of Our Own as Morgan AW and as MorganAW.

 **Chapter 1: It all comes crashing down**

William Darcy shifted again in his bed and sighed. Had his bed always been so cavernous and ... empty? He had never felt this way before. That's not to say he'd never wanted ... female companionship, but he had never felt the crushing loneliness of his empty bed before. He'd never found solitude so oppressive before. But that was before Lizzie.

He shifted again and blindly pawed for his phone on his nightstand. Three in the morning. He was pathetic. He had left Netherfield with the full intent of forgetting that maddening, argumentative, intoxicating woman three days ago and yet here he was, laying in bed pining for a woman. William Darcy, _pining!_

He idly checked his e-mail — perhaps one of the overseas offices had sent him something that could distract his mind — but there was nothing remarkable there. He opened a new tab in his browser and finally gave in to the urge he'd been fighting since returning to his empty LA apartment. He slowly typed "Lizzie Bennet" into the search bar. His thumb hovered over the search button as he berated himself for being such a fool before finally taking the plunge. The list was more extensive than he'd expected. There was her graduate school profile, her social media, a wikipedia article on some literary character of a bygone age with the same name. But the first entry gave him an odd thrill before he clicked it, hoping beyond hope that it was _his_ Lizzie Bennet that had a vlog.

Suddenly he was staring a dozzens of thumbnails of Lizzie's face. The first video was already rolling and Lizzie was complaining about her mother, but Darcy was scrolling down. She'd made a post today! Was she missing him as much as he missed her? He'd tried his best not to show his feelings, not to raise her expectations but now he hoped he'd failed. If she was just as miserable as him it would mean that there was a solution to his problem.

He clicked play and for seven seconds he was convinced that she felt the same as him, her face was full of turmoil as she grasped for words. She looked so elegant in her elaborately embroidered shirt with it's plunging neckline. But then his stomach dropped. "I'm Lizzie Bennet and I've never seen Jane like this." The cheerful music of her intro taunted him as he waited for her to continue. As Lizzie discussed Jane's true grief and rolled her eyes at her mother's pantomime of grief Darcy was beginning to feel like he'd made a huge mistake. But then Jane bustled in as cheery and sweet as ever. Perhaps it wasn't so bad after all. The coil in his stomach began to unwind when Jane insisted that she was _not_ upset about Bing.

"How's George?" Darcy shot straight up in bed as Lizzie relayed Wickham's pathetic excuses. How could Lizzie believe that man? How could she trust him? His hand clenched around his phone as Jane echoed his own criticisms about George's excuse, then broke down into tears as her tirade was re-directed at Bing. _I did this. I convinced Bing to make a clean break and walk away._ As Lizzie curled around her sister and comforted her he thought about how he would feel if someone had done that to Gigi and his stomach turned. Lizzie's anger was understandable, her sister was heartbroken — no matter what he'd convinced himself of before, that much was evident now — and it was his fault.

"If Caroline still watches these maybe ..." Caroline knew about the videos? She had been the key instigator in spiriting Bing back to LA, she couldn't know that Jane loved her brother, right?

Lizzie was talking again about their abrupt departure from Netherfield. "At least Darcy left with them," she sneered his name with obvious distaste and his heart cracked a bit. She was happy he was gone? She thought she was friends with _Caroline,_ who spent half of the time she was at Netherfield passive aggressively attacking her, but the one upside to the situation she could find was his absence?

As Lizzie mused about goodbyes Darcy was already trying to figure out if he could fix things, stewing in regret and anger. Then Jane walked in and solved half of the problem. If Jane had a career opportunity in LA, that would resolve his two other major objections to the match. Bing's classes would start again soon and he'd need to be in LA, now they wouldn't have to have a long distance relationship; and from LA they wouldn't have much contact with her horrible relatives.

As the camera cut out on Lizzie's unsure face he tried to recall the events of the last week in the context of this video. If Jane was in love with Bing, why was she kissing another man at his own birthday party? That _had_ happened, Darcy had seen it with his own eyes. He replayed the scene in his head. He had been sitting against a wall texting Gigi and trying not to stare at Lizzie when Caroline had looped her arm through his and propelled him out of his corner, going on about his need to socialize. She had led him into another room just in time to see Jane kiss another man, then turned him around and rushed him out again muttering about the scheming Bennets and how Jane was obviously just using Bing for his money.

He focused on the kiss again, as uncomfortable as it made him, and suddenly a piece of the puzzle slid into place. Darcy recognized the man. Fred Tilney had been friends with Bing at Harvard. Darcy had never liked him because of the way he treated women. He was rich and moderately handsome so he felt entitled to any woman he wanted and he played fast and loose with issues of consent. Darcy even recalled an evening during college when the lout had continually rested his hand on Caroline's rear-end while spouting off cheap pickup lines — heedless of the fact that she continually tried to walk away. It was the only time Darcy had willingly stuck by Caroline's side for an evening. Fred was more controlled in his presence so he stayed because no woman should be treated like that — even if Caroline exhibited much of the same behaviors towards Darcy.

He could easily see Tilney kissing Jane without her consent, but why was he even there? Caroline hated him, but she was the one who made the guest list and sent out the invitations. He felt sick at the thought that Caroline had set this up, that she had willingly put Jane in that situation just when Darcy was there to see it. He glanced at the time. Three thirty in the morning, he could do nothing now. He would visit Bing first thing in the morning, he had to at least try to make things right.


	2. Chapter 2: A Long Night of Self-Loathing

Chapter 2: A Long Night of Self-Loathing

He knew he'd never sleep now, so he went back and started from the beginning of the playlist. The first few videos confirmed his suspicions about their mother's intentions, but convinced him that Jane and Lizzie would never truly listen to her strictures. By the fifth video Darcy was sure that Jane was honestly as smitten with Bing as he was with her. By the sixth he was equally sure that Lizzie Bennet hated him. Aside from the deaths of his parents and Gigi's heartbreak the previous summer, he'd never experienced anything quite as painful as the woman he loved ranting for over a minute about all of his faults. That is, at least, until he realized that he'd just admitted to himself that he loved her only after he'd ruined all chances of her ever returning those feelings.

In the next video she donned a flatcap and a bowtie in an approximation of his attire for the Gibson wedding and spat out in a stiff, robotic voice: "You're dancing with the only tolerable girl in the room, so stop wasting your time with me. Sure, Lizzie's decent enough, but why would I continue to dance with her when no one else does?" And there it was, the pain and insecurity in her eyes after she'd removed the hat and bow tie. He'd insulted her. He'd hurt her. What's worse, he hadn't even meant it. He'd avoided dancing with her again because he was nervous, she made him nervous. She was so witty, and beautiful, and charming and succeeded in making him the opposite of each of those qualities because his higher brain functions seemed to shut down when she was near. So he said whatever he could think of to get Bing off his back and leave him alone in the shadows.

He had to take a break to process that episode, so he rose to take a quick shower. He was exhausted and angry at himself. He'd never been easy in company, but his own discomfort was no reason to be rude to other people. He dressed for the day, made coffee, and settled with his laptop on the couch to continue the torment of watching Lizzie's videos. He sat through hours of Mrs. Bennet's schemes, Lydia's crazy — although she could be rather sweet as well — Jane and Charlotte's attempts to redeem his character, the infuriating appearance of Wickham. Lizzie's presence was stamped across it all: her personality, her smile, her wit, her sarcasm, and her hatred of him.

The episodes shot at Netherfield were particularly painful. His disbelief that Caroline would stage Jane's 'indiscretion' faded with every appearance she made on the videos. She had clearly discerned Darcy's attraction to Lizzie and was using her appearances on the videos to fuel Lizzie's hatred. The day of the wine tasting, she sat next to Lizzie berating him and accusing him of being all but incapable of friendship then not five minutes later she was seated beside him in the convertible insulting Lizzie for the entire drive. He had suggested the town car because he _wanted_ Lizzie there, and Caroline had neatly ruined that as well.

To some extent, he was angry at Lizzie for not seeing through it all. True, in the beginning she had every right to be angry over his insult, but they had spent a month together at Netherfield. She had time to get to know him and she persisted in her resentment. The voice in his head arguing that he hadn't allowed her to get to know him, that he'd intentionally closed himself off to hide his feelings was increasingly difficult to ignore.

Through all of her anger and insults, he watched on in stony silence, unable to help himself from falling deeper in love with her in spite of everything. His anger would slowly rise, but then she would smile, or laugh, or hug her sisters and he would be caught again.

It wasn't until Wickham reappeared and told his fabricated story that Darcy smashed his empty coffee mug in an uncharacteristic bout of anger. He had looked forward to spending time with Lizzie at that party, to dancing with her, to indulging his crush just a little before he had to leave. But then Wickham had gone and ruined even that for him. After the exorbitant amount of money he had convinced Darcy to hand over then squandered! After the belligerent appeals for more money that bordered on threats! After what he had done to Gigi! After every slimy, greedy, grasping ploy Wickham had pulled, he was somehow still able to waltz back into Darcy's life and ruin everything!

Wickham had somehow twisted things to such an extent that Lizzie even blamed Darcy for _making_ Wickham stand her up! Darcy had been rather proud of himself when he ran into that cretin at Carters because he'd forced himself to leave before Wickham ended with the same fate as his coffee mug had. He hadn't even spoken to him, it had taken all of his willpower to turn sedately and walk away without making a scene. But of course Lizzie Bennet, ever eager to find his faults, had blamed him even for that. Darcy had never liked Lydia more than when she pointed out that it was Wickham who stood her up and hadn't called to explain himself.

Jane's confusion and sadness at the end of that episode when she saw Bing's tweet merged into the next — which he forced himself to watch again. Her pain was even more poignant after watching the previous forty-seven episodes of Jane's smiles and shy references to her feelings for Bing — feelings that were never evident to Darcy in their personal interactions. The outro music had played and his screen had faded to black by the time Darcy roused himself to action.

It was 8:30 on a Friday morning, and Darcy had just spent months working from home. He'd initially scheduled his return to the LA office for next Monday, but since they'd left early he'd been in yesterday and was expected today as well. Luckily, that hadn't been enough notice to fill his schedule, so his assistant was able to reschedule any meetings for the following week. He then walked past the broken shards of his coffee mug out of his apartment. He had an unpleasant meeting with Bing to get through.


	3. Chapter 3: Painful Truths

Chapter 3: Painful Truths

Bing Lee rolled over in bed and clung to the last whisps of his dream fiercely, clutching the pillow that moments ago had felt much more like Jane Bennet than down encased in Egyptian cotton. The pounding began again and Bing realized that it was real and there was someone at his door. He padded to the door and opened it to the astonishing sight of Darcy in some disarray. His normally meticulous friend wore a button up shirt, tie, and slacks like any other day. The casual observer might not notice anything amiss. However, he also had dark circles under his slightly bloodshot eyes, he hadn't bothered with contacts and instead wore his glasses, his hair was rumpled and looked like he'd run his hands through it repeatedly and his brow was furrowed. "Hey Darcy!" Bing strove for his habitual charm as he let his friend into his apartment, but his concern seeped through. He looked at the clock and noted that it was nearly nine. It was a work day and Darcy was never late. "What's going on?"

"I..." Darcy began then fell silent and shook his head as he sat down stiffly at the table.

Bing had rarely seen Darcy this distraught, in fact only two occasions came to mind. "Darcy, are you ok? Is it Gigi?" He asked as he sat nearby.

"No, nothing like that. Gigi is fine. It's ..." His friend looked up as if summoning courage "... I have made a monumental error in judgment and led you to do the same."

Bing momentarily considered whether he was still dreaming. William Darcy admitting to faults? He laughed slightly, but sobered at Darcy's grave expression. "What do you mean?"

"I made a discovery last night, there's something you need to see." He pulled out his phone and made a couple of swipes and taps before handing it over. Lizzie Bennet appeared and broke his heart. Jane appeared, with that brittle smile and false cheer and he felt like a monster. When she began crying he felt light-headed and nauseous, and tears pricked at his own eyes. He watched the whole video in a silence that hung thick in the air for minutes after the video ended.

"You ... You said she didn't love me. That she was using me," he said, unable to look at Darcy.

"I observed her myself and couldn't see that she felt more for you than any other man she interacted with." There was another long pause. "Obviously I was wrong. About so many things. I'm so sorry."

"You and Caroline said that she cheated on me!" This time he turned an accusatory look at his friend and noted that Darcy looked as wretched as he felt.

"I saw her kissing another man. I was only in the room for a moment, but I did see it." Bing felt the same stab of jealousy and disbelief he had when first confronted with this story. "But I've thought about it further and realized that the man in question was Fred Tilney."

Bing's jaw dropped, "What was he even doing there? I haven't even spoken to him since he broke up Jim Morland and Izzy Thorpe!"

"I don't know, but Caroline sent out the invitations. She's the one who led me into the room then immediately back out of it."

"But..." Bing was having a hard time wrapping his head around this "...but Caroline loves Jane. They're friends. She wouldn't ..."

"Caroline knew about the videos. She'd been in the videos. Anyone who watched those would know that Jane Bennet was in love with you," Darcy said dolefully.

"Tilney always did see monogamous couples as something of a challenge." Bing felt sick at the thought of that man pawing at dear sweet Jane. Panic and bile rose up in his throat. "Oh God! I didn't even ask her what happened. I just left! I've avoided her calls for days! What have I done? What can I do?"

As his throat seemed to close up and it became increasingly hard to breathe, he felt Darcy's hand pushing gently on his back and heard his voice say from an indeterminable distance, "put your head between your knees, take deep, slow breaths."

As his panic began to reside, he slowly got his breathing under control, and said sarcastically, "I thought I was the med student."

Darcy gave his ironic half smile that so few people ever saw, "it doesn't take formal training to know how to manage an anxiety attack."

Bing sat back in his chair and looked at Darcy, "what can I do to fix this?"

Darcy's chin drew back into his neck and he refused to make eye contact. "I thought we'd just proven that I am not qualified to give advice in this arena."

"Come on Darcy, I need help! I can't immagine a worse way to alienate the woman I love."

Darcy let out a strangled laugh, "Trust me, it's possible." Bing looked up and saw a look of utter despair on Darcy's face. This couldn't just be about Jane, Darcy messed up, but at least he'd apologized and was here, now, helping.

His last statement seemed like too wide of an opening to pass up, so Bing asked, "How?"

"You could insult her within her hearing, act cold and indifferent, ridicule her taste and family, assume that the frequent arguments you had were flirting, and not even consider what her opinion of you was until you saw her rant about you on the internet." Darcy was sitting back and scowling into the distance.

"Lizzie...?" Bing ventured, genuinely surprised at this development.

Darcy nodded. "Jane is upset at you because she loves you and you left. She'll be mad for a while, but if you talk to her, apologize, and explain what happened, she'll forgive you. Lizzie hates me, and I did nothing but confirm her assumptions about my arrogance and conceit."

"Well, look..." Bing began optimistically, "assuming Jane ever forgives me for my stupidity I'm sure you'll see Lizzie again. It's not too late to change her opinion."

Darcy looked at him skeptically but nodded. "I'll take my leave then so that you can call Jane and start making amends. If there is anything I can do..."

Darcy left and Bing took a deep breath and called Jane. She explained that Fred Tilney's drunken advances were wholly unwelcome, but she hadn't wanted to cause a scene or make a fuss, so after the kiss she'd firmly excused herself from his company and fled to a more populated room. Bing apologized for reacting without hearing her side of the story and for failing to protect her while she was in his home. It was a long and difficult call, but by the end they had slipped back into their habitual good humor together. She would be starting her new position next Tuesday, so Bing offered to 'carpool' with her to LA. He'd drive up tomorrow, load his car, and drive back down with her on Sunday.

With the hopeful prospect of seeing Jane in two days, Bing settled himself down with his laptop and watched some of Lizzie's videos. It didn't take long for him to see why Darcy was so upset.


	4. Chapter 4: Reunions and Goodbyes

Chapter 4: Reunions and Goodbyes

Darcy impatiently sat through his meetings on Monday morning. After his extended period of telecommuting and his abrupt disappearance on Friday, he could hardly tell the board to re-schedule the meeting because he was waiting for a vlog update. But he was. After he'd left Bing's on Friday, he'd considered going to work, trying to distract himself, but he had unfinished business. Bing's personal life might be back on track, but Darcy's was as dismal as could be. He couldn't allow her to think he hated her. What's more, his silence on the matter of Wickham had left Lizzie vulnerable and he had to rectify the situation.

So instead of heading to Pemberley or back to bed, Darcy found himself in the office of his personal accountant requesting records of the transactions between the Darcy estate and George Wickham. He then went home and began writing. He had a ridiculous monogrammed stationary set that his Aunt Catherine had given to him ages ago and somehow it felt like the proper outlet for what he had to say. He couldn't imagine pouring his heart out in an e-mail, or exposing his deepest secrets on a legal pad. It had taken at least five drafts and most of the day before he finally sealed the letter (in for a penny, in for a pound, he might as well use the wax seal). He'd given the letter to Bing that night to deliver to Lizzie and the furtive worry on his friend's face suggested he'd seen the videos.

That had been Friday evening and he knew that Bing had driven up on Saturday. Lizzie usually filmed Monday's post on Sunday. So now, Monday morning with a packed work schedule, he could do nothing but wait through his board meetings and budget reviews to see her reaction.

As soon as the lunch break rolled around, Darcy closed himself in his office, sat at his computer and refreshed his browser. A new thumbnail of her smiling face appeared and he eagerly clicked it.

Hi Everyone," she began with an enchanting smile. "So you're probably wondering what happened with Jane's life since my last video. Well... we hadn't heard anything. Days passed. And then last night our doorbell rang. My name is Lizzie Bennet, and guess who showed up on our doorstep in the rain last night?" The intro music rolled and Darcy smiled at her flair for the dramatic. Bing had called Jane and made plans to be at the Bennet house the day after her last video aired, but Lizzie's presentation was far more appealing to her audience.

"Bing Lee is Back!" Lizzie enthused in her video, splaying out her fingers as she spoke. "Apparently he'd heard that Jane kissed some guy at his party and freaked out, thinking that Jane didn't love him like he'd thought. _Please_ Jane is so pure and good, I can't immagine her ever willingly cheating on anyone" [cut] "...or anything for that matter." She rolled her eyes up to the ceiling as if she was thinking about it.

"Anyway, there has been groveling and begging for forgiveness, I've seen it myself! He's spent most of his time with Jane, as it should be, but I'm still sure he didn't decide to jump ship and skip town all on his own. If there is fault here, it lies not with Bing, but with John the Bastard, and by John I mean Darcy!" Darcy's stomach dropped. Had she not read his letter? Had she read it and still not believed him?

She would no doubt have continued on her rant, but Bing appeared at her open door and knocked. "Lizzie?"

"Oh, Hey Bing! Come on in!" She shifted over and motioned for him to sit down beside her. "Bing, this is the internet, internet, let me officially introduce Bing Lee." Bing waved and greeted the viewers. Lizzie turned to Bing and added, "I'm so sorry I posted videos of you before you knew about my vlog."

"Not a problem, without your videos who knows how long our misunderstanding would have lasted. But hey, I heard Darcy's name and that reminded me — I've been a little preoccupied with Jane since I got back." Bing smiled and Lizzie gave that scrunched nosed smile she always gave when Jane & Bing were too cute to handle. "He asked me to give you this," Bing handed her his letter. _Good, at least she hasn't read and rejected it,_ Darcy thought.

"Darcy?" Lizzie asked, clearly confused. "Darcy asked you to give me a letter? Why?"

"Well, he watched your videos and..."

Lizzie cut him off and asked in a panicked voice, "Darcy watched my videos?" She gave an anxious panicked laugh, "Oh God! He could sue me for some of the stuff I've said about him. Not that it's untrue! He's a really successful businessman, really successful businessmen sue people. Alot, so I'm told. Oh God, do I know any lawers?"

"Trust me, he's not going to sue you. He's not that bad a guy."

"I know he's your friend, but, on a scale of one to murder, how angry is he?"

"I've never seen Darcy so..." Bing struggled for words and Lizzie looked at him apprehensively "...defeated. He's not angry, I think he's mostly sad and upset at himself."

Lizzie snorted in laughter, "a self-deprecating Darcy? That'll be the day!"

Bing looked worried and sighed, "Please, just read his letter. Anyway, I've got to get back to helping Jane pack." Bing turned to the camera and gave a quick "bye" before heading down the hall.

Lizzie looked at the letter. "Is this hand written? And wax sealed? And it's in cursive! I don't think I've had to read cursive since they taught it in the fourth grade." She bent her head to the letter with a furrowed brow then quickly tossed it to the side and Darcy's broken heart cracked a little further. "Well forget about it, nothing he can say can change anything. Nothing! Out of sight, out of mind! So..." She gazed about the room as if looking for another topic, but after a moment of dithering finally gave in and picked the letter back up. She retained her self-righteous indignation for a few seconds before her expression turned grave, then worried.

She shook her head and reached her hand up to turn off the camera when suddenly George Wickham snuck up behind her, covered her eyes, and asked "Guess who?" Lizzie jumped and quickly hid the letter to the side.

"George..." she said nervously as he sat down beside her.

"Oh, hey. I saw your sister with a big smoothie, she's not going to spill her drink on me again, is she?"

"Well, let's hope not," Lizzie said, than added in a soto voice, "you're head's swollen enough as it is."

"What?" George asked, confused.

"What are you doing here, George?" Lizzie asked, and Darcy was pleased to note that her voice was colder than she'd previously used with Wickham.

"Oh! I've got to leave town."

"Oh really?" Lizzie asked suspiciously.

"I just got an offer to coach for the Meryton Marines, it's a club team but they want to dive straight into their off season conditioning."

"Congratulations," Lizzie said sedately, "when do you leave?"

"I just came by to say goodbye."

"Well, goodbye."

Wickham looked at her suspiciously, obviously expecting a more emotional reaction. "I'm sorry about the tickets to the music festival on Friday," he ventured, I'll be back in a few weeks and I will make it up to you. Promise."

"It's not a problem," she replied, "I'll take Lydia, I could use more time with my little sister."

"Ok, peach," he said and chucked her on the chin, "I'll see you in a few weeks." And with that he turned and walked out the door. The scene was so similar to Wickham's haughty departure from Gigi's life that Darcy's blood boiled.

The video cut back to Lizzie alone and centered in front of the camera. "Speaking of people who act like they like you. What is it with everyone?" Lizzie widely gesticulated with her arms. "I've got a letter from the one person I was sure hated me informing me ... well, he doesn't _hate_ me at any rate, and the guy I was dating just up and leaves like it's no big deal. Jane has accused me of being paranoid, but this is just ..." Lizzie shrugged her shoulders and the video cut off. Darcy stared blankly at the screen feeling unfulfilled. She hadn't had time to read his letter before the episode ended. He was fairly certain he'd at least raised her suspicion against Wickham, but what about the rest? Would she believe him?


	5. Chapter 5: Letter Analysis

Chapter 5: Letter Analysis

Lizzie Bennet had spent the past couple of days trying not to dwell on Darcy's letter. For a woman who published her own diary on the internet in regular installments, she had found it rather difficult to read someone else's confessional. Part of the problem, of course, was that Darcy's inner thoughts seemed to be mostly focused on herself and had forced her to inspect her own feelings.

The man she'd publicly called Snobby Mr. Douchey had seen her videos and instead of responding like the arrogant ass she'd come to expect, he had written her a long, detailed response. She hadn't wanted to believe his version of Wickham's story, but he'd included actual evidence that he'd turned over a sum that would have been more than enough to cover four years of tuition into Wickham's control. She desperately didn't want to believe his account of Wickham's relationship with his sister, but there was again evidence of a financial transaction to corroborate it. And even an arrogant obnoxious snob wouldn't make up a story like that about his own sister.

She'd only had time to skim his letter when George had walked in, but it had already affected her opinion of him. George was charming and sweet and handsome, but even after only skimming Darcy's letter, she couldn't conjure up justifications to defend him as easily as before. _He_ had stood her up then disappeared for a couple of days. In fact, he kept disappearing with little notice and he'd come to her room that day to disappear again. So with her own convictions waning on George's trustworthiness, Lizzie could no longer dismiss Darcy's claims about the man. He had even tried to warn her about him at Bing's party, but Lizzie had noticed only the delivery and not the content of his warning.

As for Jane and Bing, Darcy freely admitted that he'd convinced his friend to leave town. It took several read-throughs for Lizzie to feel anything but livid at this. But after her sixth perusal, she had to admit that if Darcy _had_ seen Jane kiss another man, his motivations in separating the couple were probably borne from a desire of protecting Bing. If Lizzie had seen Bing kissing someone else, she'd have probably done the same.

The kicker, though, was the rest of the letter. He'd watched fourty-eight episodes of her vlog and most of those included at least one jibe at Darcy. But he didn't yell, or admonish, or litigate as she'd expected he would. Nope. he called her _prolific,_ her videos were _illuminating._ Apparently he _had_ admired her _fine eyes_ and been thoroughly teased by Caroline for it. He didn't hate her, _quite the opposite._ What does that even mean? Was Darcy saying... no, that was not a declaration of love from William the robot Darcy.

But his letter also made it obvious that he wasn't a robot. He owned to being excessively shy and that he _sometimes has difficulty explaining himself_ in person. While his voice might be cold and clipped and his body language awkward, his letter was warm and intimate. He'd even apologized for his insulting words at the Gibson wedding and for making her visit at Netherfield awkward or unplesent in any way.

She'd been surprised to find that Darcy had feelings and she'd hurt them. What she'd been hung up on for days now was that when Darcy hurt her feelings that first night she'd internalized it and allowed it to color her impressions of him for the rest of their acquaintance. When she'd hurt his feelings he'd written her a short novel apologizing for his own errors, protecting her from shady characters, and telling her how pretty her eyes were. So who's "Snobby Miss Petty" now?

In spite of all of this background turmoil, Lizzie now sat smiling at her camera, actively talking around the Darcy shaped elephant in the room. She was going on about her stagnant life while everyone else moved on when Lydia rushed in, dumped an armload of chocolate, tissues, and sappy movies in her lap, and hugged her while talking about heartache and revenge.

"Why do I need to plot revenge?" Lizzie asked, legitimately confused.

"Ugh, what are you forty? This has been on twitter for the last ten minutes," she said she said and shoved her phone into my hand.

"Uh, George made it to Meryton ... what?"

"What!? Look at his tweets!"

"'Makin' a splash in Meryton' 'Hangin' with the Meryton Marines' 'Feelin' very welcome at the side of the pool.'" Lizzie could summon no interest in these revelations. "He lost his ability to use a 'g' at the end of a present participle?"

"He is clearly in Meryton with other girls! Swimmer girls!" Lydia exclaimed, exasperated.

"And?"

"And you're ok with that?" Lydia looked at her as if she was about to burst into tears.

"To be honest, yes."

Lydia shoved her face into Lizzie's and looked intently into her eyes from an inch or two away. "Oh, my God! You are! You were dating! Lizzie Bennet does not do casual."

"Ok, there was a time that I liked him, but he kept disappearing at odd times, and there's a lot we didn't know about him."

Lydia looked at her skeptically, "Is this about that letter from Darceface?"

Lizzie gave a pained smaile and said, "letter, what letter?"

"OMG what did it say? Did George like steal his girlfriends and total his car? Is he some sort of ax murderer? Oh! Or did Darcy like totes profess his undying love for you?" This was all said with heightening speed and energy. Lizzie looked away, Lydia was uncomfortably close to Lizzie's suspicions on that last point.

"WTF, he did! What did it say? Please, please, please!" Lydia whined.

"I can't tell you." Lizzie said as firmly as she was able

"You can't hold out on us! Think about all of your loyal viewers!" Lydia pleaded, turning to the camera as if looking for support.

At Lydia's scrunch faced glare, Lizzie added soberly, "I can't it was too personal."

"Whatevs," Lydia rolled her eyes and jumped up, snatching Lizzie's diary off of the bookshelf behind her. Before Lizzie had time to register what she was doing, Lydia had grabbed the letter from her diary and ran into her own room, slamming and locking the door behind her. Lizzie bolted after her and pounded on the door. After several minutes of banging on the door, pleading, and rationalizing with her sister, Lydia had agreed that they couldn't read the letter on the videos.

Ten minutes later, Lizzie was seated again in front of her camera. She would edit most of that pleading and rationalizing out before she posted. Instead, her viewers would get a cut jump to this rather cryptic statement. "I know this goes against all the previously established principles of these videos where I tell you guys every embarrassing little thing, but, the problem is, the contents of the letter are not mine to share. Some of it involves people I've never met and I don't want to spill secrets that could potentially hurt someone. I know, that was very cryptic and I apologize. But I can tell you that Darcy admitted to splitting Bing and Jane up ... and apologizing for an 'error of judgment' in not realizing Jane's feelings is not the same as apologizing for meddling in people's affairs because you think you know better than they do. And Darcy's still not big on my family, my mom, my little sister. So at least my opinion of him is justified there. But other parts of the letter, let's just say other parts of the letter make me think that maybe I was a little harsh on Darcy. And it makes me rethink my once good opinion of someone with whom I'm glad to say I no longer associate. This is definitely messing with my worldview. It's like I don't know myself anymore."

After she turned off the camera, she sat quietly in her room for a few minutes feeling at sea. Eventually, she checked her phone and saw that she had missed a call from Charlotte at some point during her squabble with Lydia. Talking with Charlotte soothed her after weeks of estrangement from her bestie. They made their peace and caught each other up on recent events. While Charlotte's logical approach to digging information out of Lizzie about the letter was more persuasive than Lydia's whining and speculation, Lizzie kept most of it private. By the end of the call, Charlotte declared that Lizzie needed a change of scenery and invited her to come stay with her for a while. Lizzie quite agreed and gratefully accepted. She was looking forward to putting all of this drama behind her for a bit.


	6. Chapter 6: Moving On

Chapter 6: Moving On

Darcy told himself that now that he had righted his error he could move on with his life. Jane was in LA, settling in to her new job and reconciled with Bing. Lizzie had clearly read and believed his letter, and while he hadn't fully redeemed himself in her eyes, at least she was kinder in her criticisms of him now. The situation was as far resolved as it was likely to ever be. He had willfully alienated the woman he loved and there was little he could do to fix it. So he told himself to move on. He threw himself into his work. He went out with Gigi and Fitz and Bing, although seeing Jane was a bit difficult.

He did try to take Lizzie's criticisms to heart. He made more of an effort to be considerate to people he'd barely noticed before. He moderated his own speech and actions and considered how the angry Lizzie of her videos might interpret them. Futle as any future with her might be, he tried to be the kind of person she might consider worthy. He knew he often failed in this endeavor, but was convinced he'd at least made improvements.

If Reynolds thought it odd that he had cleared a block in his schedule every Monday and Thursday morning, she was too much of a professional to comment on it to him. Which was good, because it would be difficult to explain his need to see Lizzie's vlog as soon as it was uploaded, then rewatch it several times to analyze it and catch every nuance. He'd watched her videos from Collins and Collins with rapt attention.

He had been fighting the urge to e-mail Dr. Gardner — whom he had met at several conferences — reminding her about the excellent internship opportunities at Pemberley just in case any of her graduate students were interested, when an e-mail appeared in his inbox offering him a less Machiavellian means of seeing Lizzie in person. His aunt wanted him to assess corporate progress at Collins and Collins. It was the type of request she sent him frequently — an excuse to lure her favorite nephew to visit her _and_ keep her subordinates on their toes — and which he usually brushed off with excuses.

However, knowing that Lizzie was staying with Charlotte and shadowing the company, he had begun planning almost immediately. He waylaid Fitz in the hallway after their afternoon meeting and all but begged him to come. Fitz, naturally curious, grilled him enough that Darcy felt he had to give him some explanation. The old Darcy would have shut down, but the Darcy who had watched the open relationships Lizzie had with her sisters and friends, haltingly told his friend a brief history of his relationship with Lizzie. With no small amount of teasing, Fitz not only agreed to come, but promised to haul Brandon along for the show as well. Within the space of an afternoon, he had replied to his aunt, booked flights, and reserved a hotel.

The next morning he anxiously awaited her next post. In her e-mail his Aunt Catherine had given him her own summary of her dinner with 'Liz' Bennet and Darcy wanted to assess the damage from Lizzie's perspective. He had no illusions about his aunt's social skills — in fact many of the defects Lizzie had honed in on in himself were exaggerated in his aunt. When it was finally posted, he was blindsided by the fact that she was blindsided.

She hadn't mentioned him much on her videos since she arrived at Collins and Collins, though Charlotte had tried to extract more information about the letter. After her fairly generous monologue on his letter and respectful silence on the matter for her subsequent videos, he was unprepared for the level of frustration she showed that he "would not get out of her life." She would rather maroon herself on a desert island than be connected with him. It hurt him nearly as much as her first videos because she'd read his letter and she still felt that way. He watched the video three more times and his anxiety about his trip grew with each viewing. She didn't want him in her life. If she'd felt "figuratively smacked by a semi-truck" just by learning Catherine was his aunt, how much worse would it be when he simply showed up.

He'd spent most of his morning mulling over his arrogance and presumption at arranging a business trip around his desire to see a woman who very publicly hated him. By lunch time he'd realized he needed advice and headed for Fitz's office.

"I need your help," Darcy said as he shoved his phone into his friend's hand, the video was paused at the beginning on Lizzie's anxious face.

Fitz looked at the phone and asked, "This is the girl? She's cute!"

Darcy felt his chin draw back, uncomfortable discussing Lizzie's beauty with anyone else, and replied, "Yes, very. But I need you to watch that video."

Fitz hit play and Darcy watched him wince at the intro, laugh at Lizzie's costume theater of Aunt Catherine, wince again when Lizzie suggested Anniekins and Darcy were perfect for each other. Fitz's expression was harder to read as Lizzie discussed Catherine's praise of Caroline. He smiled widely and raised his eyebrow when Lizzie claimed that Darcy and DeBurgh do not consume her life.

"Ok, I'm not going to lie, that doesn't look good." Darcy nodded and looked despondently out the window. "Cheer up though, she's clearly jealous of Caroline, and I think the lady doth protest too much that you don't consume her life," Fitz winked.

"But she doesn't want me there and I've already committed to this trip. She already thinks I'm arrogant and presumptuous, this will only prove it!" After a lengthy discussion over lunch with Fitz, a call to Bing, and a couple of e-mails later, Darcy was left to hope that Lizzie wouldn't hate him any more than she currently did.


	7. Chapter 7: Robot Surprise

Chapter 7: Robot Surprise

Lizzie was sitting in her temporary office at Collins and Collins reading through Charlotte's operational plan for her independent study when Charlotte burst into her office.

"I need to know what was in that letter." Charlotte demanded as she sat down across in front of the desk.

"Charlote, we've talked about this. I can't"

"I know that it was personal, and I don't need all of the gory details, but I need to know what's going on between you and Darcy." Charlotte's 'successful business woman' voice seemed out of place for such a private request.

Lizzie shifted in her seat. How could she explain what was going on with Darcy to Charlotte when she didn't know herself. She strove for a casual tone and replied, "nothing's going on between me and Darcy." Which was true. They'd had no contact since that letter.

"Ok, real talk. This is important. Catherine DeBurgh informed us yesterday that she was bringing in a consultant to monitor corporate progress at Collins and Collins. This afternoon, _Mr. Collins and I_ got an e-mail from Darcy informing us that he was the consultant and he and his colleague Fitz Williams would be here on Sunday to begin the process. Then five minutes later _I_ get a second e-mail from him asking that I inform the staff and _any interns or shadowers_ ahead of time of their presence so that nobody would be blindsided."

Lizzie started at that phrase. "Oh God, he's still watching the videos!" Lizzie whined.

"Apparently," Charlotte concurred, "So, I need you to tell me. Is he concerned about running into you because he's angry at you, or because of ... other things."

"I don't know, Charlotte. He wasn't angry in his letter, more ... hurt."

"In your last video you said that you were blindsided by Catherine DeBurgh being his aunt, maybe he just wants to make you more comfortable?"

Lizzie giggled a bit at the idea of William Darcy making anyone _comfortable,_ but the laugh died on her lips as she recalled the gentle tone of his letter. "I don't know what's going on with Darcy," Elizabeth repeated, "he's this guy I met and thought was an arrogant snob, we had an awkward relationship IRL, I said a lot of mean things about him on the internet, he saw them, and he sent me a really nice letter. If it had been anyone but Darcy, I would have thought that he liked me from some of the things he said in his letter..." Lizzie trailed off, blushing.

"Such as..." Charlotte prodded.

"In response to my assumption that he hated me he responded that his feelings were _quite the opposite."_

Charlotte sat up straighter, "he loves you?"

"I didn't say that!"

"Come on Lizzie! We learned what the opposite of hate was in like kindergarten!"

"Shit! Does Darcy _love_ me?"

"Well, that probably means a better outcome for C&C from this review at least," Charlotte said flippantly. Lizzie shot her a look. "How about you? What do you feel."

"Certainly not love! But I do owe him an apology, and we probably need to talk."

"Yeah!" Charlotte said sarcastically as she rose to go back to work.

* * *

The next day she'd gotten a phone call from Jane. She was doing so well in LA with her new job, and things with Bing were as practically perfect as they were before _the incident._ Somehow Jane still hadn't seen or spoken with Caroline since they all left, which was weird with them living in the same city and Jane dating Caroline's brother. Jane did admit that Caroline might have played a role in _the incident,_ it was the worst thing she'd ever heard Jane say about somebody else and Lizzie was proud.

But then Jane continued on with: "I know Darcy initially advised Bing to cut ties with me too, but after he realized what my feelings were he tried to fix it. He's actually kind of sweet."

"Jane, this is Darcy we're talking about!"

"I never thought he was as bad as you portrayed him, and I've seen him several times in LA... I hear he's going to be in your neck of the woods for a while." Jane tried to sound casual.

"Ugh, not you too!"

"Lizzie, he saw your last video and he wanted to make sure he wasn't ..."

"Blindsiding me... yeah yeah," Lizzie finished for her sister

* * *

On Sunday she sat in the deserted Collins and Collins office in front of her camera. She had just let off a lot of nervous tension by dancing around like a five year old when nobody could see her. Of course, filming this and uploading it to the internet somewhat negated that logic.

"Sometimes you just need to kick off your shoes and run around like a little kid. My name is Lizzie Bennet, and I can't remember the last time I laughed like that." She paused to give a clean break for the intro to be edited in to. Things have been so tense lately, Charlotte and Mr. Collins are off meeting a new consultant, and you'll never guess who it is!"

"Well, you probably will, because you guys always seem to guess that it's Darcy, so this time, internet, you win. In the past three days I've heard from no less than three sources that William Darcy would be consulting at Collins and Collins. He e-mailed Charlotte, explicitly asking her to inform me, my lovely sister Jane 'casually' slipped it into our phone call yesterday, and he even tweeted about it! The man never tweets unless tweeted at and is only following, like, four people but he felt the need to tell the internet where he'd be for the next few weeks."

Lizzie grimaced at the implication that she'd studied his tweets, of course she hadn't. She'd been linked to the tweet and she studies communications, she just naturally observes trends and analytics ... Well, Charlotte would have to edit this awkward pause out. "Before you ask, I only know because so many of you, my loyal fans, retweeted it at me. You should all probably leave the poor man alone."

"So basically, after my last video, Darcy felt the need to widely advertise that we'd likely run into each other which is ... actually kind of sweet. It would be awkward anyway, but at least now I'm prepared."

"Hey Lizzie," Charlotte called from down the hall, "some people came back after the meeting, you should join us," she said with a shrug and a significant look.

Lizzie looked at the camera and shrugged, "I guess it's time to get this over with."

"Pleasantly?" Charlotte said with a pleading face.

"Pleasantly, I can do that!" Lizzie said to the camera. Then got up and followed Charlotte down the hall.

Darcy was sitting in the reception area, his chin locked against the monotonous drone of Ricky Collins's voice, but as soon as he saw her he jumped up and said "Lizzie!" in a voice that almost showed emotion before he cleared his throat and asked in his habitual tone, "how is your family?"

"They're doing well," Lizzie said, uncomfortably aware of his feelings toward her mother and Lydia.

"That's good, I had dinner with Bing and Jane on Friday. She seems to be doing well in LA." His voice was still somewhat mechanical, but it seemed softer than she remembered.

"Yes, they actually seem to appreciate her talent in LA and she's got a lot more opportunities than she had in our sleepy little town."

"Yes," Darcy said stiffly, then turned to introduce his friend, "this is Fitz Williams."

"Lizzie B," he said exuberantly, "I've heard so much about you!"

"Really?" Lizzie turned anxiously to Darcy and he blushed a little — _Darcy the robot blushed!_

"Only good things! Listen, my boyfriend has been chilling at the hotel all afternoon and is ready for dinner, you wanna join us?" He asked and wiggled his eyebrows.

She looked at Darcy and replied, "sure..."

At just the same moment that Darcy began, "I was ..." Darcy cleared his throat again and said, "you go ahead."

"I was just going to say sure, but..." she paused as she felt the sudden need to clear the air, "can we talk for a minute?"

Darcy looked surprised, but answered with a small nod, "of course." He swallowed visibly and Lizzie was momentarily mesmerized by his Adam's apple.

She led him to the office she'd been using and remembered the camera was still rolling. "Oh, I can shut this off if ..."

"Oh, you're filming." He swallowed again, "no, it's quite alright, I can't begrudge your videos certainly. They've been very useful from my perspective." Lizzie couldn't quite see how a series of videos railing on him could possibly be useful.

"Um, ok." She sat down stiffly and he sat beside her.

"You wanted to speak with me?" He asked hopefully.

She found she couldn't look at him, so she looked at the camera instead. He could look her in the eye when he inevitably watched this video later.

"I owe you an apology, I was overly ... harsh on you in my videos."

"What did you say of me, that I did not deserve?"

"Do you need a recap? Because there was a lot. One of my fans even helpfully made a supercut of all of the times I've insulted you."

"I hadn't realized ... I've been used to acting the way I act and having everyone else just fall in place because of my money or position. I might have continued acting like an infuriating douchebag forever if you hadn't called me on it."

"Well, I'm sorry I did it so publicly then. I somehow never pictured you actually watching my videos. How _did_ you find them?"

"I do run a digital media company, I'm perfectly capable of running a google search."

Her eyes snapped up to his. "You googled me? Why?" He returned her gaze with that intense stare of his that she remembered so well. She'd always assumed he'd seen her as such a trainwreck that he couldn't look away, but now, sitting this close to him, feeling his heat against the length of her arm ...

"I ..." he began, then seemed to loose his courage. His mouth opened and closed a couple of times before he finally shrugged and said, "I missed you."

Lizy felt uncomfortable and looked away. She had hated this man only ... wait, when did she stop hating him?

"Lizzie, I don't want to make you uncomfortable with any sentiments you don't return..." Well, he was definately in love with her. "...if you want me to go, just say the word and I'll leave you alone forever."

 _Alone forever._ Lydia's list of reasons Lizzie Bennet is perpetually single popped into her head unbidden at his statement. Here was a rich, handsome man, apologizing for burdening her with his love. She may be confused, but she didn't want to be cruel, or for this to be the last time she saw him. "No need for anything so drastic. Why don't we just try to start over. Clean slate?"

She offered him her hand and he nodded as he took it, "I'd like that."

"Well, should we go join the others for dinner then?" He rose and gestured for her to go out the door first. As they walked down the hall Lizzie mused to herself with some surprise that Darcy was not a robot at all. He might even be considered a gentleman, even if he was a little shy and super awkward.


	8. Chapter 8: Thaw

Chapter 8: Thaw

Even after a day full of meetings with his Aunt Catherine and Mr. Collins — two of the most trying people to converse with — Darcy was happy. Sunday night's talk with Lizzie had gone far better than expected. It had taken all of his willpower not to just declare that he loved her when she'd asked why he googled her. But he was aware that she didn't share his feelings and didn't want to offend her again, or frighten her away. He had skirted around his emotions in their conversations. He'd come close enough that he was certain Lizzie understood the depth of his feelings, but he hadn't put her in the position of having to respond to a declaration.

His heartbeat raced when she'd offered a clean slate. Obviously he couldn't forget his early behavior or how horribly he'd treated Lizzie, but she hadn't sent him away. Had she wished it, he would have left and never imposed his company on her again, but she hadn't. Instead of isolating himself in his hotel room analyzing all of his failures, he'd spent the evening sitting across from Lizzie, soaking in her presence. Fitz and Brandon were witty and fun and Lizzie had laughed and smiled. He'd said little, content just to watch the woman he loved converse with his friends. Dinner the following evening had been even livelier with the noted absence of Mr. Collins.

He'd always thought her engaging, but he hadn't realized before watching her videos how much she'd held back in their interactions. He'd seen wit and vivacity, but apparently not ease. These last few days she'd grown more comfortable than she'd ever been in his presence, and he felt himself relaxing in return. It was nearly perfect and yet it made him long for more.

Now he was back in his hotel room dressing for dinner at his aunt's. Typically he dreaded this kind of event. His aunt expected certain archaic customs to be upheld. Unfortunately, these customs did not prevent her from dishing out advice and criticism to all around her. She often invited business associates or wealthy donors to these functions and expected Darcy to participate in inane small talk. It was exactly the type of social event he abhorred. But Fitz and Brandon would be there — they always put him at ease — and even Charlotte had a soothing way of incorporating him into the conversation. But most important was Lizzie, he hadn't had the indulgence of spending three evenings together in her presence since she'd stayed at Netherfield and now they were friends — his heart rebelled at the term, but it was still an improvement over her previous hatred.

He entered his aunt's foyer with far more optimism for a pleasant evening than he'd ever done in the past. That is, at least, until Caroline Lee emerged from the coat room and attached herself to his arm. "Darcy! I saw that you were in town and decided to take up your aunt's open invitation to visit! And of course Fitz and Brandon are always delightful. It's a shame that Lizzie Bennet is here to spoil our evening. I mean, she was out of place at Netherfield, but here at Rosings? Catherine tells me she sticks out like a sore thumb." All of Darcy's hard-won calm slipped away as he strove to be polite to Bing's sister.

Catherine was her usual condescending self. She made a point of juxtaposing her compliments to Caroline with her criticisms of Lizzie. She monopolized his attention, and every time he even attempted to talk to Lizzie she interrupted and demanded her share of the conversation. She refused to call Lizzie by her actual name and insisted on calling her Liz or Elizabeth. She made frequent oblique and overt comments on his and Caroline's compatibility. Caroline herself took every opportunity to send passive aggressive jabs at Lizzie, completing the evening's torture. By the end of the second course he'd nearly reached his breaking point.

"How's your sister Georgiana getting on?"

"Quite well, she's now nationally ranked in tennis," He replied tersely.

"Oh, splendid, splendid! It was so unfortunate when she gave up swimming."

Darcy hadn't shared the real reason for Georgiana's newfound dislike of swimming with Aunt Catherine and the question skirted on dangerous topics. He glanced at Lizzie and she gave him a sympathetic look. Drawing courage from her silent sympathy, he replied: "It's for the best, she wished to focus her accomplishments." He tried to remain calm, reminding himself that nobody at the table but Lizzie and Fitz knew about Georgiana's past with Wickham, but getting this close to the topic unnerved him.

"Umm, such a work ethic! Elizabeth, you should take note, you girls are much to prone to time wasting!"

And that was the last straw, Darcy'd had enough. "Lizzie certainly doesn't engage in time wasting activities! She's finishing up her graduate degree, writing her thesis, and completing four independent study projects."

"Well, if she'd been more shrewd in her decisions she could have been gainfully employed at Collins and Collins by now and helping shape the company rather than merely shadowing it and sleeping on her friend's couch. Ms. Lu certainly made the better choice."

The whole table was silent for a moment, even Mr. Collins realized that it was uncouth to mention such a thing with both women present. Darcy glared at his aunt. "Lizzie Bennet is brilliant and will be an asset to the field when she goes on the job market. If Mr. Collins had made her the offer _after_ she'd finished her degree perhaps she would have taken it, but you've always been vocal about the benefits of an advanced college degree for getting ahead in business, particularly for women who have to work twice as hard to succeed. Charlotte is thriving and happy at Collins and Collins and I would not dream of criticizing her decision, but Lizzie would not have been content to abandon her studies so close to graduation. Certainly you wouldn't want Gigi to make such a choice."

"Certainly not! But that is not at all the same. In our circle, a graduate degree is essential, but people of Elizabeth's class have more pressing concerns." Aunt Catherine said, glaring imperiously over her glasses at Lizzie.

"And of course, we all know about the Bennet family's crippling debt problem," Caroline added with a barely concealed glee.

Darcy threw down his napkin and stood. "I'm ashamed of you both. Those are the kind of classist sentiments that alienate you from those around you and make you sound like nothing more than elitist snobs." He took a breath and glanced at Lizzie, who was now looking at him with something close to pride.

"William Darcy, sit back down. do you know who I am? I have not been accustomed to such language as this! If you weren't my nephew, I would throw you out of this house."

"No need to throw me out, I find I've lost my appetite. Lizzie, would you care for a ride home?" His only thought was to get her out of there and away from the vicious barbs of Caroline and his aunt.

"Don't be rediculous! They haven't even brought out the port yet!" His aunt was berating him, but he was intent on a pair of sparkling eyes down the table. She nodded and took his offered hand as they silently walked out of the house.

When they got to the car, he opened her door for her before getting in the car and trying to contain his anger. He gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles went white from the tension. He looked over in surprise when Lizzie started laughing. "What could you possibly find amusing about that scene?" He asked incredulously.

"You! That was the most I've ever heard you speak at once!" She broke down into another fit of laughter, "if anyone had told me a month ago that _William Darcy,_ who called me tolerable on the first night we met, would defend my accomplishments against the rude comments of his aunt with a rant about not being an elitist snob I would have told them they were crazy!"

Darcy chuckled a bit himself. "I believe I may have borrowed from your repertoire for that monologue. Was I really as bad as _that?_ "

"In hindsight, no. But I hadn't met Catherine DeBurgh yet," Lizzie gave him a devastating smile and his heart flipped. She leaned closer and asked "will you help me costume theater that scene for the diaries?"

"I'd do just about anything you asked, Lizzie Bennet," he gravitated towards her, drawn in by her laughing eyes.

"I'm beginning to believe that," she said as she closed the gap and kissed him. It was soft and warm and a nearly perfect first kiss except that it was over far too soon for Darcy's liking. She smiled up at him, "you did just slay a dragon for me, another appearance on the videos to chronicle your chivalry shouldn't be too terrible." She paused for him to respond, but he found he couldn't command his lips to do anything other than smile back at her. Her eyes twinkled a little as she continued, "besides, I've never had as many views on a video than when you appeared on yesterday's."

Darcy's smile widened, he knew full well that there was a video that prominently featured Wickham's abs and yet he had been a bigger draw. Catching her playful mood and fueled by the euphoria of having her in his arms, he grinned and said: "Well, if you're using me for your ratings, I know what your viewers really want to see," he pulled her closer and kissed her deeper, longer, with all of the emotions he'd repressed for so long. He ended the kiss but rested his forhead on hers, unwilling to break the connection. "Lizzie Bennet, I am in love with you," he breathed.

She sighed, "I know," she toyed with his tie as she continued, "that's the only problem."

Even with his arms still around her he stiffened, "I'm sorry if you weren't ready to hear that yet, but I couldn't hide it from you any more."

Lizzie laughed, "you haven't done a very good job of hiding it since you sat down to write that letter. The problem is that I'm not in love with you... yet. But I could be. I just need time."

"Time," he sighed. His arms fell from around her and he began to pull back, "I can respect that."

"No!" Lizzie said and pulled him back to her, kissing him again. When she pulled back, she looked him directly in the eye and said: "Let me make things as clear as possible. William Darcy, I don't wanna be just friends and I don't wanna be with you because I'm grateful — though I am grateful for your defense in there — I wanna be with you because of you. But I didn't really start to know the real you until a few days ago, so I need time to get to where you are, ok?"

"I can live with that," he said and leaned in to kiss her again.

She leaned out of his reach and playfully said, "as much as I'm enjoying making out with you in the car, I'd rather not still be out here when Caroline leaves."

Dreading that outcome as much as Lizzie, Darcy cleared his throat and replied, "of course, where to?" He asked as he fastened his seatbelt.

"My camera's at Charlotte's if you feel up to shooting tonight?"

"If it means spending more time in your presence, I'd be happy to shoot tonight." He smiled as he shifted the car into reverse and left the whole unpleasant dinner behind them.


	9. Chapter 9: Recap

**Chapter 9: Recap**

Lizzie looked around her as she set up her tripod. Of course, she had suggested that they go back to his hotel room for purely practical reasons. Charlotte's apartment was tiny and had bad lighting. If this was going to be one of her most viewed videos — and lets face it, her fans shipped her and Darcy even back when she hated him, so it would be — she wanted it to have a high production value. It was a matter of professionalism. These rationalizations were harder to maintain as she sat in this rather fancy room in fancy hotel while William Darcy made her fancy tea.

She was maybe a bit giddy, apparently kissing Darcy did things to her otherwise solid reasoning skills. The best light in the room was in the entry way, so she framed the shot with the door slightly off-center behind the stool from the foot of the bed. She sat down just as Darcy brought over her cup of tea. "Are you ready?" He asked.

She saw the nervous tension in his face, "yeah, are you?"

"I've never done this before."

"Don't you have a short memory, we shot a video on Sunday!"

"Yes, but that was just a conversation. Costume theater is... different."

"You're portraying yourself, you'll do fine. Would you rather I do the intro, then you join?"

He sighed and a bit of the tension left his forehead, "Yes, I think that would be best." She suppressed a giggle. How did it happen that she suddenly found his shyness adorable when previously she'd labeled it haughtiness?

* * *

Thursday morning Gigi Darcy was sitting at her desk at Pemberley Digital when Fitz sent her a youtube link with the message: "You'll get a kick out of the earlier videos too, but you've got to see this one first! Our boy's all grown up!" Intrigued, she clicked the link and sat back to watch

A pretty redhead smiled at the camera and said, "Hi everyone! This has been the most surreal night of my life. You know how there are some things you just know are true? And you know that you're so clever and perceptive that even though other smart people whose opinions you trust tell you otherwise, you _know_ that you're right? Well, as it turns out, maybe you should listen to your friends in those situations. I'm Lizzie Bennet, and guess who played my knight in shining armor tonight?" She reached out her hand and William took it and sat down next to her. Gigi nearly spit out the sip of coffee she'd just taken while the peppy intro music rolled, drawing a couple of her co-workers over to her desk to see what was happening.

Who was this girl? Wasn't William on a business trip? It took him like forever to get comfortable with new people, so how was he was holding hands with her and smiling like a fool?

"So, as you know, I haven't always had the best opinion of Darcy here."

"You called me a robot, and a newsie."

"Yeah, that probably wasn't the best descriptor, I only saw you in that hat once and ran with it."

"But more importantly, you thought me an arrogant snob. Rightly so."

"Well, you don't make a good first impression, but, those of you who've been following my videos, will be surprised to hear that Darcy here defended my honor tonight." William blushed and Gigi gaped at her screen. "We were both invited to dinner at Catherine DeBurgh's house tonight and somehow Caroline showed up."

"I'm not surprised, I'm sure Monday's video made her nervous. As you've said, I didn't do a stellar job at hiding my feelings." _Feelings!_ Gigi thought to herself, _how am I just finding out about this!_

Lizzie looked back at William with a knowing smile then abruptly turned back to the camera. "Anyway, it didn't take long for things to get ugly." As she said this she picked up a hat from beside her and placed it on William's head. Her hand lingered for a moment in his hair, William closed his eyes and leaned his head into her hand like a puppy until a knock on the door spoiled the moment.

William stood to answer the door and Gigi heard Fitz's shout of: "Yes! I knew you had it in you!"

Lizzie twisted around and said, "Fitz! Perfect timing, will you be our Caroline?" Fitz pushed into the room past William.

"I thought you'd never ask Lizzie B! I've been dying to be on your vlog!" He sat down on one side of Lizzie while William settled back on her other side. There was a cut and Fitz was wearing one of those doctor's reflector headband things with a pink flower clipped to it, Lizzie was wearing floral reading glasses and petting a stuffed dog.

Gigi watched in fascination and indignation as they played out the scene with her Aunt. Fitz's rendition of Caroline was perfectly campy and Lizzie's portrayal of Aunt Catherine was uncanny. Gigi was upset, though not terribly surprised to find that Aunt Catherine had used her to disparage Lizzie. She clapped when William shot their aunt down and was surprised by the crowd she'd drawn around her when they clapped too.

As William finished the scene, threatening to leave the dinner party over his aunt's silliness, Lizzie leaned over and gave William a kiss on the cheek. "I'd really prefer if you weren't dressed as my Aunt when you kiss me," William said with dry sarcasm. Gigi couldn't believe that her brother, Mr. No PDA, was casually joking about kissing a girl she'd never met on a vlog on YouTube.

"Yeah, sorry," Lizzie cringed and removed the glasses before turning back to William and with an exaggerated voice declared: "What can I say, that kind of chivalry? Women swoon!" She playfully fell back on him and he shifted his arm around her.

Fitz watched the whole exchange with a huge mischievous smile. "I think that's my cue!" And spun off of the seat. Standing behind the couple, he gave them a quick group hug and added "You guys are my heroes, Catherine was so outraged that she was speechless for a full five minutes!" He stood back up, took off his costume — after a comical struggle getting it around his hair — and said, "Peace, Lizzie B, Darcy. I'll leave you two alone ... in this hotel room ... with a camera ..." He then winked at the camera and Gigi knew he was winking at her.

Once he left the room, Lizzie said, "So... we're not going to reenact what happened next."

"But what about the ratings?" William asked with a smug smile and Lizzie blushed. Gigi heard some of her coworkers high-fiving each other behind her at that, and she just stared at her reserved brother teasing and flirting. Whoever this Lizzie Bennet was, she must be something special.

After a moment of fondly looking into each other's eyes, William grew serious again. "I really am sorry for my aunt's behaviour, it was unpardonable."

"Yeah, if she wasn't Charlotte's boss's boss I would have said something similar myself," she said. "But, _you_ have nothing to apologize for, you have no more control over your aunt than I do over my mother,"

"True, but I can't stand to see anyone treat you like that. I don't think I'll be able to talk to my Aunt until she apologizes to you."

"I bet that'll make tomorrow's meetings somewhat difficult," Lizzie teased, and ran her fingers along his tie. "But seriously, your aunt's outburst did push us along rather nicely."

"I can't complain about the result." William said as he leaned down to kiss her. This one was more than just a peck on the cheek. Gigi had to look away — that was her brother, eew! The small crowd of coworkers cheered at the development, William was well liked by his employees and they were all thrilled only to see him smile, let alone in love. The video jump-cut to a more disheveled shot of William with his hair sticking up at odd angles and a blushing Lizzie shifting off of his lap and smoothing down her dress.

William turned to the camera with a smug smile of victory, "I thought we weren't going to reenact that part of the evening."

Lizzie scrunched up her face and punched him playfully. "That wasn't a reenactment, that was spontaneous!" Her other hand was still grasping his tie and they were beginning to gravitate back toward each other when Lizzie cleared her throat and turned her head toward the camera. "I think we've given the internet enough of a show for one evening." William pressed another kiss to her temple with a sigh before Lizzie reached forward and turned off the camera.

Her co-workers erupted into excited chatter, and Gigi tried to process it all through the din. William was in love! And he hadn't told her! She left the rest of the graphic design department gossiping and slipped into an empty conference room and shut the door.


	10. Chapter 10: Reactions

Chapter 10: Reactions

After uploading today's video, Lizzie and Darcy sat next to each other in front of the camera. Lizzie assured him that within 10 minutes of posting that video they'd see some reaction from her sisters or Charlotte and thought it'd be fun to catch it on camera. So there they sat, and were supposed to be making exaggerated waiting faces for Lizzie to cut into a montage. They were mostly succeeding at smiling at each other silently like a pair of high schoolers stealing glances in homeroom.

"Are you certain something's going to happen? I mean..." He was interrupted by his own phone buzzing. "Gigi," he said looking down at it.

"Not who I expected," Lizzie said with a smile."

For a minute she just listened in amusement at Darcy's side of the conversation. "Hello? ... How did you even ... Fitz, of course ... Yes, I do ... Yes, she is ... The whole graphic design department? ... I'm sorry ... I thought she hated me, what would be the point of ... yes, I know human beings share their feelings, I just ... Maybe I _could_ tell you the whole story if you'd let me complete a sentence."

At this point, Lizzie's own phone rang. "Hey Lydia! What's new?" She remained casual just to contrast her sister's exuberance.

"OMG, WTF, Whateves, YOLO, FTS, PQZ!" Lizzie had to hold the phone away from her ear to shield her from the piercing squeal.

"Have you lost your ability to speak in words? I don't even know what that last one was."

"Darcy?! OMG For reals? Darcy?"

"It kinda just happened."

"But you hate him, he was mean to you!"

"Not as mean as I was to him."

"Yeah, you were kind of a B."

"But now we've both apologized and moved on."

"Are you happy?"

Lizzie looked over at Darcy, who was anxiously trying to explain their checkered past to his sister. He looked up and met her eyes and they both fell silent for a minute and smiled at each other. "Yes, I am," Lizzie said with a smile in her voice.

"Good! I hope you played some whack-a-mole during that cut scene!"

"Lydia!"

"What, you were sitting on his lap, are you saying something wasn't popping up and you weren't swatting it around?"

Lizzie blushed, but deflected the question. "I am so glad you're not on speaker phone right now," she said, looking into the camera and grimacing.

"That's not a denial!" Lydia shouted excitedly. "Anyway, I'm late for class! Enjoy making out with Darceface! He better treat you well or he'll have your crazy, energetic sister to deal with!" With that the whirlwind of her conversation with Lydia was over.

Lizzie looked back over to Darcy, who was still talking to his sister. "I was laying in bed missing her and did the only logical thing ... Gigi! No, not that! ... I googled her and found her videos. I stayed up all night watching them. It was illuminating ... You'll just have to watch the videos yourself then. Anyway, the next morning I made things right with Bing then I tried to move on with my life. This trip was an opportunity to see her again and things just ..." He trailed off as he looked up at Lizzie and brushed his thumb across her cheek. "Soon, I hope ... yes ... I'm sure she will ... Ok, love you too, goodbye."

"You watched them straight through in one night?" Lizzie asked, "Isn' that like, four hours of me being mean?"

"Closer to four and a half hours of you being you," he replied. "Even when you're being critical you have a way of doing it with such a a mixture of sweetness and archness that is bewitching even as it stings." Lizzie found herself wondering for the thousandth time since he arrived at Collins and Collins how she'd ever thought him devoid of emotion. She leaned forward and kissed him. Before the kiss reached a point that would necessitate another cut scene, they heard Charlotte's voice from down the hall and jumped apart.

"Oh my god!"

"I know." Lizzie replied as Charlotte bustled into the room, pausing momentarily when she saw Darcy sitting next to her.

"Darcy just ..." Darcy blushed slightly and tucked his chin in.

"I know," Lizzie repeated.

"And then you ..." Charlotte was obviously still processing this development.

"I know."

"All day yesterday, you had all day and you didn't tell me anything!"

"We wanted some space," Lizzie said with a shrug. "It's new, and we wanted some time to process our own feelings before processing everyone else's reactions."

"Oh my god! I totally knew it! I new he liked you. Or that it was a definite possibility."

"Yes," Darcy said as he pulled Lizzie closer to make room for Charlotte to join them on the bench, "I've been meaning to thank you and Jane for trying to point out my true motivations."

"No problem," Charlotte replied, "sometimes Lizzie gets tunnel vision and only sees what she wants to see."

"Hey!" Lizzie exclaimed.

"What? Would you rather you'd been right in this scenario?" Charlotte goaded.

Lizzie looked at Darcy, who suddenly wore an insecure expression. "No, this time I'm happy to be wrong." Darcy's brow cleared at this and he resumed his now habitual adoring gaze.

"Well, Mr. Darcy, we've got a meeting with Catherine DeBurgh in ten minutes, and you know how she hates to be kept waiting. So unless you want her to come looking for you, I suggest you two wrap up." Charlotte gave Lizzie an excited squeeze and left the office. She returned five seconds later to close the door behind her.

"So, now people know." Lizzie said, turning to Darcy.

"Yes," he replied his lip twitching up in an endearingly embarrassed smile. "Gigi apparently drew quite the crowd when she watched today's video at her desk. I have no doubt that by lunch most of my employees will know."

"Are you ok with that?"

He shifted his weight. "Mostly ... I'm ok with them knowing I have a girlfriend. I'm less comfortable at the idea of having my sister and a half dozen of my subordinates watching us kiss."

Lizzie felt the familiar twinge of guilt she'd been having since she'd read his letter. She'd said so much about him and somehow hadn't even considered how her vlog would impact his life and now internet notoriety was unavoidable. "I'm sorry, I know you didn't sign up for this. You're not exactly a fan of the limelight."

"Lizzie, if public scrutiny is the price of being with you it's a price I'm willing to pay." She couldn't for the life of her figure out what she'd done to deserve such devotion. Eventually he broke the gaze and looked down at his pocket watch. "I really ought to get going. I'll see you for lunch?"

"I'ts a date!" She replied and he gave her a smoldering look that she felt even after he left the room. So far there had been a lot of kissing, holding hands, and discussion of feelings, but they hadn't been on an actual date yet. Suddenly lunch was a new milestone. After a moment's happy reflection, she smiled at the camera and said. "Ladies and Gentlemen, William Darcy. My boyfriend."


	11. Chapter 11: Plans

Chapter 11: Plans

Their relationship progressed rapidly from there. They saw each other daily and grew ever more comfortable in each other's company. Lizzie found that she hadn't required much time at all for her feelings to catch up with his and a week after their explosive dinner at Catherine DeBurgh's she moved her suitcase from Charlotte's place to his hotel. They had another three weeks together before Darcy and Fitz had to return to Pemberley and Lizzie reluctantly returned to Charlotte's couch. She finished out her planned shadowing experience at Collins and Collins and returned home with Charlotte for Thanksgiving — after employing some creative strategies to persuade Mr. Collins that Charlotte did indeed deserve the holiday off.

Darcy's standing plans for Thanksgiving were to have dinner with Gigi, Bing, and Caroline. However, after a couple of volatile meetings between Caroline and Lizzie before the former finally returned to LA, Darcy did not find that prospect particularly appealing. Lizzie invited him and Gigi to Thanksgiving at the Bennets. Knowing her mother's tendency to cook for three times the people scheduled to attend the meal and wishing to avoid the drama of pre-holiday hysterics that would arise from her daughter bringing home a rich, handsome boyfriend, Lizzie did not tell her mother about their guests until about an hour before their arrival.

Jane, who had taken a train up the day before, was happily surprised when Bing arrived with the Darcys. Apparently without Darcy to impress, Caroline didn't see the need to pay for a caterer or prepare a meal themselves, so Bing found himself released from family obligations and free to join his girlfriend and her family. Thanksgiving at the Bennets was as loud, energetic, and vulgar as Darcy would have expected, but he found he didn't mind so much as long as Lizzie's hand was in his.

* * *

Since the next shadowing experience that Dr. Gardner had set up for her was remote with a company in London, Lizzie and Darcy decided that she should come visit him in San Francisco after Thanksgiving. Knowing that her baby sister's birthday fell in the sweet spot between the end of the semester and Christmas, Lizzie suggested she come to San Francisco to celebrate her birth week in style.

Gigi, who instantly adored all of the Bennet sisters, managed to preemptively put out several fires over the course of that trip. Having never had sisters of her own, she was enjoying the novelty of adopting herself into the Bennet sisters. She insisted on joining Lizzie to shop for Lydia's gifts and managed to talk her out of purchasing a self-help book. She joined their nightly trips to bars — which were much more varied in San Francisco than the single bar back home — and had the energy to keep dancing with Lydia when Lizzie and Darcy had collapsed in exhaustion for the evening.

One evening, when their siblings had gone home early to be boring adults, Lydia and Gigi got massively drunk and Gigi spilled out the whole of the story between her and Wickham in detail. "You see, the thing is ... guys like that, they wait until just the right moment. William and I had had an argument right before he had to go away for a month." She paused to sip her martini, sloshing a bit onto her shoes. "I hadn't even seen George in weeks, then he showed up right when I was feeling angry and abandoned and frustrated. He found all of those sore spots and he poked at them. Not, like, obviously ... he'd compliment me on something, then comment that my brother wouldn't think it was good enough."

"OMG, what an ass," Lydia said fiercely.

"Yeah, it's so obvious looking back. After all of the crying and therapy and shouting matches with my brother are over, it's obvious to look back and see how stupid I was, but at the time I really thought that he was the only person who cared about me!"

"Uugh! Men are the worst! I mean, even your brother was sooo bad when we first met him. And Bing! He's like the nicest freaking guy ever, right? But he just ghosted out without even explaining himself to my sister!" The evening continued on in much the same vein of cascading waves of sisterhood and shots. The following month, when Lydia was in Vegas and separated from her friends and came across a familiar face, she was sure to knee him in the balls for hurting her friend. She called Gigi later that night from her hotel room and assured her that "it was totes worth getting tossed out of that bar for the look on his face."

* * *

Jane and Bing thrived in LA. When Bing suddenly realized one day that he couldn't remember why he wanted to be a doctor, he went to Jane's place and they stayed up all night talking about it. They broke down the pros and cons of medicine for him and realized that the only thing he really wanted to do was help people and for that he didn't need a medical degree. He finished out the semester since it was so close to the end of term, but did withdraw from the program for the spring semester. He began volunteering for several charities and by the end of March had found a job organizing events for a local youth organization that focused on high-school completion and college prep for under-represented populations.

One of Jane's designs gained critical acclaim in the LA fashion week, leading to her getting her own fall line. While she had stagnated in menial work with the same company back home, in LA she found growth potential in her field. With higher acclaim, she also got a raise, and thankfully was not required to defer her student loan payments again.

* * *

Dr. Gardiner had surreptitiously planned for Lizzie's third shadowing experience to be at Pemberley Digital, but decided that would be inappropriate if she had a romantic relationship with the CEO. However, between her contacts and Darcy's they managed to find Lizzie a place at a not-for-profit that made charity videos for web content. For her fourth independent study, Lizzie created a business plan for her own company. Between her web community based around the diaries, and the networking she'd accomplished at the few social events she'd gone to with Darcy in San Francisco, Lizzie had enough investors lined up by June to begin enacting that business plan as soon as she graduated.

She hadn't consciously realized when she left that she was actually moving to San Francisco. It was initially just a visit because they wanted to spend time together during the holidays. But then she kept extending her stay. She had to come back after going home for Christmas because there was a big New Year's Eve gala at Pemberley Digital and Darcy really wanted her support. Then her third independent study began two weeks later in San Francisco, so it didn't make sense to go back home and make another trip. She'd slowly begun moving more of her possessions to Darcy's place every time she was back at her parent's house.

When she came back briefly for her thesis defense a couple of weeks before graduation and discovered that her mother had turned her room into a meditation room, she wasn't even upset by it. It wasn't until she was waiting in the TSA line wishing nothing more than to be teleported home to Darcy that it hit her that Darcy's house _was_ home.

She took stock of the situation when she walked into the house that evening and Darcy was lugging another three bags of her stuff up to the bedroom. There were new picture frames on the mantle mixed in with the Darcy family photos: a candid shot of her and Darcy dressed to the nines at a charity event but staring at each other with dreamy expressions, another of Lizzie, Gigi, Jane, Lydia, and Charlotte all wearing matching sweaters that Gigi had gotten them for Christmas, and another of Lizzie and Darcy casual and windswept against the backdrop of a San Francisco sunset on the first time they'd gone sightseeing. She had re-arranged the kitchen to her liking because Darcy and Gigi never cooked and the personal chef that came in several nights a week worked in so many kitchens that she didn't care about the layout. She'd taken over a desk space in one of the spare bedrooms early on since she was working remotely on her independent study and her thesis. The embroidered 'L' that Jane had made her was hung on the wall, and a memory board full of notes for her thesis hung above the desk. The rest of the wall was nearly covered in various post-it notes.

Darcy was the kind of guy who unpacked his suitcase at hotels, so he'd begun putting her clothes in drawers and in the closet from the first. It had started as a drawer and a couple of dresses hanging in the closet, but now the ratio was nearly even. Once those three new bags were unpacked, she was pretty sure she'd have more clothes and shoes here than him.

She collapsed on the couch in their bedroom next to Darcy and blurted out, "I think I live here."

He turned to her and replied, "well, yes."

"We never actually had this talk. You never asked me to move in and I never made a decision to do so. When did this happen?"

His brow furrowed in thought, "It's been coming on so gradually, that I hardly know when it began."

"Me neither, but I think it's done. All of my investors are in San Francisco. I graduate in two weeks and I'll be starting my business. Here. Are we ready for this?"

Darcy laughed, "Lizzie, I've been living in this house my whole life but I don't think I'll ever be able to think of it as anything other than _our_ home ever again."

"Good," she smiled and kissed him. Raising her eyebrow, she added "The only thing left to do is mix our books. That's the true point of no return."


End file.
